This invention concerns the use of RFID tags. Specifically the invention applies or embeds miniature RFID tags to or into components or products in a manufacturing process, to track the progress of manufacturing, to assure that all operations have been performed on each item and also to provide useful data to the end user of the item.
Traditionally, tracking of items during manufacture typically has been done manually using paper travelers in combination with line-of-sight bar codes. This is inefficient, and bar codes usually have insufficient data and coding capability to identify every part uniquely, and also cannot be written to, in order to determine where the item has been. Often a bar code has only been applied to a bin containing a number of similar components. The bin can become mixed, causing misprocessing, and individual reading and tracking of each item is not possible.
A miniaturized RFID tag is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,480,699, and the use of such a small stand-alone tag device which includes an onboard antenna is envisioned for the present invention described below.